After a fantastic NBA career, what is next for the All-Time Great Kobe Bryant?
You may be surprised because it is not at all related to the game he played and loved for 20 years.
Kobe Bryant is leveling up and making a big career shift as a Venture Capitalist. And the Los Angeles Lakers Alumnus is not alone. He is partnering with long time entrepreneur and investor, Jeff Stibel who is the Vice Chairman of Dun & Bradstreet, Chairman of BrainGate and Former President of Web.com.
The NBA Star seems to be loving and enjoying his new career as he is also contributing to future generations as he told in an interview with CNBC.
Their partnership, however, is not that new. They have been investing in various companies since 2013 and only made the partnership formal after Bryant's retirement from NBA last season. Some of the companies that they have invested in are The Players tribune (Sports Media Website), LegalZoom (legal-services company), RingDNA (tele-marketing software firm) and Juicero (home-juicing company).
Bryant and Stibel recently officially launched their $100 million venture-capital fund which aims to help start-up companies related to technology, media and data. The company which is named Bryant Stibel will be based in the city of the NBA Star, Los Angeles, California. The two are not pursuing any outside investors yet.
It is said that the two matches each other, Bryant is more inclined to branding while Stibel is equipped with various experiences in building and developing companies.
However, the LA Lakers former captain is not the first athlete to venture into investments. What are making the athletes venture into a different world and invest? The promising future of this industry and the reality that they cannot be in their sports forever. With this, more and more present and retired athletes are trying their luck in investing in start-up companies like NBA Legend, Shaquille O'Neal, and Football Star David Beckham.
